Just bought a GTX285 for £199. Thinking I might have made a mistake now, looking around the net, it seems that the 5850 is the same price range, is faster and obviously DX11 compatible. I'll be playing games at 1920*1080 what do you guys reckon am I better sending the 285 back/selling it on Ebay and getting a 5850 ?
Both cards are about equally fast (if memory serves me correctly). DX11 isn't quite a "must have" feature just yet. However, in terms of power consumption (and probably also noise) I'd say the HD5850 has the upper hand. Depending on how much money it'll cost you I'd consider trading up, but ONLY if it doesn't cost you much.
Stick with it. The card is hardly slow while the chances of finding a 5850 anywhere is near impossible.
I'd say go with the HD5850 as stock has just renewed, and that it performs almost equally and has better AA/AF quality(seriously, check the BT review) than the GTX285. Of course, this is assuming you can find one, if not there's always crossfire HD5770s.
I don't think you made a mistake. Not for Dx11 anyways. The 285 is a very strong card. I purchased a 5850 when I was considering breaking up my GTX280 SLI setup for Eyefinity. The 5850 gave me problems with crazy pauses in some games that my nvidia cards never did. But the bottom line reasoning I stuck with my cards (really a single 280 cause I drive a triple monitor setup) was because the 5850 didn't FEEL any faster thus not quantifying such an 'upgrade". Since u already have the 285, stick with it.
5850 is a better card but 285 is good enough so it's probably best to just keep it now that you already have it.
Thanks for your thoughts so far, I thought I would get a one way or another decision but there seems to be a real split in opinon. It looks like I'm going to have to go with my instinct on this one.
There's nothing split about it! You've just spent £199! Be happy with your purchase and maybe trade up next year or later to a higher end 5 series or whatever comes next. A 285 is perfectfly fine for most things. If you were asking which to buy that would be a different question... But you've already bought and the 5850 isn't going to be better enough to justify the hassle imo.
I've gone for a second GTX 280. ...wtf... no one was taking about 280's, stick with the thread...... The reason I'm mentioning it is I've just sangged a second one for SLi. 2x GTX 280's watercooled with a core of 750 beats an OC'd GTX295. A stock 295 is a match for a 5870. So my setup should be faster than a stock 5870. Anyway. May point is the the topflight Nvidia cards are fine for now. Next summer when the 40nm is sussed and Fermi is in the shops the prices should fall. The nvidia cards will lose a little price but alot of folks want to sli them so you can still sell them.
